Jolty

Adam and Faith are back for a new episode of Jolty. This week’s guest is Don Burton, and education technology & innovation thought leader. Don started off in the business world working for Goldman Sachs as well as McKinsey & Company, before coming to the realization that career path wasn’t fully utilizing his passions and potential.

This inspired Don to eventually branch out into the educational space, taking a look at how our public and private education systems are run, and how we could potentially evolve to become more efficient and achieve better results for future generations. The “drill and kill” method of education is from a bygone era, and it’s time to radically change how kids learn as they grow into healthy, educated, and productive adults.

What are the choices when it comes to K-12 education for kids? What is a microschool like Elon Musk’s Ad Astra? How much money do we spend on education per child each year? Should homework be outright abolished? This is a fun one, and definitely one of our more Jolty episodes for 2024 thus far. We hope you enjoy it and learn more about the possibilities of our education system in the future.

This week on Jolty, Adam is riding solo as co host Faith is out on business. But this still promises to be a very jolty episode with guest Michael Matias. Michael is the CEO of Clarity, which is a relatively new company that is working to fight deepfakes for enterprises. 

Deepfakes are a new threat in the digital realm which combines “deep learning” and artificial intelligence with personal identity. Whether it be a political deepfake, or a more personal scam call or banking identity theft, deepfakes are something society at large needs to contend with in an increasingly digital future. 

What exactly is a deepfake and how can companies like Clarity detect them? What are the three types of “deepfakers” according to Michael? How will deepfakes affect digital avatars? What about biometrics? Adam and Micahel drill down “deep” into these questions and more on this episode of Jolty!

Adam and Faith are back for the second Jolty of 2024, and this is a great one with guest “Momo” Vuyisich, the Co-Founder, Chief Science Officer, and Head of Clinical Research at Viome Life Sciences. Viome is focused on microbiomes in your gut, making sure you are eating the proper nutrients for your individual needs. 

It’s a fact that as advances in medical and pharmaceutical technology have expanded the human lifespan, we have also fallen short when it comes to nature immunity. The dirt and grime that we sterilize in our lives today used to be a huge factor in building our gut microbiome.

Adam and Faith drill into this whole topic with Momo, covering topics from Covid to Ozempic. Are almonds actually healthy for everyone? How do we prevent things like Alzheimers or ALS? What about the brain microbiome? There’s a lot to discuss in this week's episode and we hope you enjoy it!

This week on Jolty, Adam and Faith are joined by the Senior Director at Ripp Media, Joshua Spivak, to talk about everything recall elections. Joshua has been running a recall elections blog going on thirteen years, and is a Senior Fellow at the Hugh L. Carey Center for Government Reform. Needless to say, he’s very passionate about this subject.

In an age where people are frustrated with their political representatives, with a feeling of little to no progress, why aren’t there more recall elections? What does it take to actually recall an elected official? Why can’t recalls be done on the federal level? Faith and Adam ask these questions and more on the first Jolty of 2024!

Welcome to Jolty with Adam and Faith! In this episode, we dive into the world of mental health innovation with our guest, Alex Frenkel, who used his training in clinical psychology as the basis for Kai.ai. Kai is a conversational AI app that engages users in meaningful, therapeutically-validated chats where people reveal intimate emotions they might feel uncomfortable exploring in settings that aren’t anonymous.

Alex discusses how technology that is trained on clinical learning can serve as a support system for anyone - especially young individuals navigating many of the well-documented emotional challenges brought about by social media.   

Kai, developed three years ago, boasts over 100,000 users and addresses a myriad of issues, all while maintaining user anonymity. Its effectiveness has been validated in peer-reviewed papers. 

Frenkel responded to the situation in Israel with a dedicated version of Kai, specially trained for the stresses of wartime. This geolocation-based response can be applied to any area that is experiencing high-levels of trauma, such as mass shootings.  

Tune in to explore the future of mental health tech and the transformative potential of AI companionship with this week's Jolty!

Today, Faith and Adam are joined by Steven Hassan. In this episode, we discover the secrets of cults, the impact of AI, and the future of humanity. Steven, a cult expert and author, shares his personal experience within the Moonies cult, highlighting their manipulation and thought-stopping techniques.

We’ll explore the psychology of cults, the "malignant narcissism" in powerful figures, and the unsettling parallels between Donald Trump and cult leaders. We also look into AI's role in paranoia and social media's addictive allure with apps like TikTok and its potential for mind control by the Chinese government. 

We’re excited for you to hear this episode, we talk about so many different aspects of mind influence and coercion, and even futurist ideas like Elon Musk's Neuralink, and the controversial notion of trans-humanism. We hope you enjoy this episode of Jolty!

This week on Jolty we are joined by Lenny Ackerman, a lifelong lawyer and author. Lenny turned to writing after his wife's passing, starting with pen pals and growing into a great storyteller. His book, "Fishing The Morning," blends his love of fishing with personal experiences.

Lenny also shares his father's journey from Ukraine to America, and an upbringing which shaped him into the person he is today. While better known for his tough love in the courtroom, Lenny has found tranquility in his love for fishing and writing.

Join Adam and Faith for an episode filled with inspiring stories and meaningful insights into Lenny Ackerman's life, writing, and journey of self-discovery.

On this episode of Jolty, Adam and Faith are joined by Walter De Brouwer, a theoretician on artificial intelligence with an over 30 year career in the field. Walter has established several AI and deep tech companies, 4 of which even underwent public offerings. He’s here to walk us through AI and computer language models, black holes, further innovations in AI coming down the pike, and even the history of language itself.

Is uploading consciousness even possible? How far are we from having actual AI lovers like in the movie “Her” with Joaqin Phoenix? Where and when did human language originate? Answers to these questions and much more on this week’s Jolty!

On this week’s Jolty, Adam and Faith are joined by a very special guest, Juan Enriquez, who is an author, academic, and speaker. He has some pretty amazing insights into the polarization of Americans in 2023, and why our perceptions of right and wrong have changed over the history of human civilization. 

How have the goal posts of morality changed over the years? Why was slavery accepted across the world for thousands of years? How are our ideas of sexuality changing and what will it look like 100 years from now? What about the effect of antidepressants and other drugs more and more people are relying on (including Adderall for ADHD)? Where does technology come in? We’ll drill down with Juan on all these questions and more on this episode of Jolty!

This week on Jolty we have a very special guest; the President of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten. The AFT is one of the largest organizations in the country with over 1.7 million members, 60% of which work directly in education, but also many of which work in other fields such as healthcare. One of Randi’s many missions is to make the middle class cool again, while also making public school a place that can bring people together of all different backgrounds, beliefs, and ethnicities, creating a better society for all.

We also asked her about many of the hot button topics of today like: Why has public education become so politicized? What is the effectiveness of boycotts? What is the status of unions, and how will companies like Starbucks and Amazon be affected? Join Adam and Faith for this exquisite episode of Jolty!

Join us as we dive into the world of longevity with Sergey Young, author of "Science and Technology of Growing Young." In this episode, Young shares groundbreaking insights on extending human lifespan. Discover the latest research, cutting-edge technologies, and visionary perspectives that challenge our understanding of aging. 

Explore the potential of rejuvenation biotechnology, regenerative medicine, and personalized medicine to reshape our lives. How will our diets change in a future where humans live to be 200? What about sex and reproduction? Adam and Faith can’t wait for you to hear this week’s episode of Jolty!

This week, we are joined by our good friend Dr. Jane Aronson, pediatrician and child psychiatrist, who specializes in adopted kids. Jane also ran the Worldwide Orphans foundations for over 20 years, and even helped Faith to adopt her two lovely children, gg, 24 and cc, 18.

We explore with Jane the failures of orphanages, the health issues with which adopted children struggle, child trafficking concerns, and how to make adoption more appealing to families across the country. What was it like helping Angelina Jolie to locate and adopt several of her children? We get the answers and more questions in this week's episode of Jolty!

This week, Adam and Faith are joined by longtime friend and colleague Emily Oberman, who is a Partner at the design studio Pentagram. Emily has a wealth of experience in the design and branding space, working on projects like Saturday Night Live, Ready Player One, and DC. 

Why are logos and brands made the way they are? How will AI impact designers? What was it like rebranding the SNL intro after COVID? If Emily could redesign or rebrand one company who would it be? These are some of the questions we ask Emily in this very Jolty episode.

This week Adam and Faith are joined by one of the most Jolty guests yet, a fellow futurist Nita Farahany, who is the author of a new book called The Battle for Your Brain. It's quite the dystopian idea that future technology will open up the possibilities of reading and understanding what someone is thinking. But while it seems like something from a George Orwell novel, it could be here sooner than you think.

That’s why Nita has made it her mission to bring awareness to this developing field so that society may have a chance to grapple with this possibility and put laws and limits in place before it gets out of hand. What is the idea of cognitive liberty? Could this be used to prevent crime? What happens to free will? Should people be judged by their thoughts rather than their actions? We ask Nita all of this and much more on this episode of Jolty.

As we grow older, the abundance of guidance, patterns, and exemplary figures that we once had access to in our youth, seem to dwindle. However, despite the fact that media and brands have struggled to grasp, promote, or address any demographic over the age of 40, AGEIST is a company committed to advocating for a fresh perspective on life beyond 50.

On this week’s Jolty, Adam and Faith are joined by David Stewart, the founder of AGEIST, and he’s here to talk to us about all parts of the aging process. Whether that be changing work goals, living to be 120, or even nutrition tips, David has thought of it all.

What is ‘biological age’ referring to? How can companies help to support aging employees without suppressing younger up and comers? What about the science behind extending your actual lifespan? We’ll cover these questions and much more on Jolty!

This week’s Jolty episode is all about the future of human resources. As life expectancy increases, future generations will be required to work longer, into their seventies and even eighties. But it seems like companies today are looking to hire people over 50 less and less. How will we bridge this divide?

That’s where NxtWaves comes in. Adam and Faith are joined by the founder, Michele Evans, who has worked for 20+ years in HR for some pretty big businesses including Microsoft and Meta. She has a vision of helping accomplished professionals in the second half of their careers to find the next phase of fulfilling work.

How will the introduction of AI affect workers? What’s the future of remote vs. in office work? Can you have fun at work in a virtual environment? Why are so many tech companies laying off employees in the thousands over email? Michele has valuable insights into these critical questions and much more on this week’s Jolty!

Adam and Faith are delighted to be joined by Louis Rosenberg, PhD, and David Baltaxe, who are the CEO and President respectively of Unanimous AI. Unanimous AI amplifies the intelligence of networked human groups through their Swarm AI technology. This technology seems to be especially directed at businesses with multiple shareholders trying to all pull in different directions, with the idea that a ‘swarm’ can get to the solution more effectively.

Louis and David often refer to their technology in the biological sense with schools of fish or swarms of bees, but the technology is far from rudimentary. Unlike most AI companies, Unanimous AI is not looking to replace humans, but instead looking to connect people leveraging AI. We hope you enjoy the conversation!

This week Adam and Faith are about to get ‘Jolted’ by Alayar Kangarlu, an associate professor of neurobiology who has also been working in the field of MRI research and development since the 90s. More recently, Alayar has been focused on a therapeutic procedure called PrTMS which uses an fMRI scan to locate areas of the brain that are not working correctly and sends signals to help ‘jolt’ the brain back into working order.

Faith and Adam pepper Alayar with questions like: Can this treatment change your personality? What is happiness? Is this just for patients on the spectrum (like autism) or can someone who is depressed utilize the treatment? How close are we to mainstreaming this type of therapy? Find out the answers on this week’s Jolty!

Interested in finding more about neurotherapy? Visit Dr. Kangarlu’s website: https://neurotherapeutixnyc.com/

This week, Adam and Faith are joined by Tobias Peggs, CEO of Square Roots, a company that has the mission to feed every consumer on the planet with locally grown food using hydroponics. Tobias will tell us all about the technology behind Square Roots, including the impact of AI on the growing of lettuce.

How does growing with hydroponics compare to growing in traditional soil? What are the pros and cons of this type of indoor growing method? Find out the answers to these questions and much more on this week’s Jolty!

The first Jolty of 2023 is here! Faith and Adam are joined by Chloé de Ruffray to discuss everything about future trends. While many people are feeling like the world is in a constant state of crysis, many are also finding sanctuary in the regressive aspects of technology and culture.

AI like ChatGPT are changing the industry, what jobs will be impacted by the introduction of AI into the workforce? Are things like ChatGPT and the metaverse a trend or a big part of the future? Chloé is one of the first futurists to come onto Jolty with us and we look forward to having more in the future!

On the last episode of Jolty for 2022, Adam and Faith take a moment to give their predictions on trends moving into 2023 and beyond. Will business owners ever be able to get their employees back into the office? Will Covid ACTUALLY end this time? What about Trump? We get you the answers and much more on this week’s Jolty!

This week on Jolty, Adam and Faith are joined by Andrew Goldman. Andrew (Andy) is the Head of Programming at Grooveee, LLC and has also been a professor at NYU for the past 17 years. But before that, he got his big break working for HBO for nearly 30 years, giving him real world experience of the ins and outs of TV programming, pilots, screen testing etc.

Not only is Andy a very Jolty guest, he’s the perfect person to talk to when it comes to the future of film and content in this discombobulated world we find ourselves in today. A world in which you aren’t allowed to make jokes, everything is polarized, and streaming networks are taking cinemas out to pasture. We hope you enjoy the conversation!

On this episode of Jolty, Adam and Faith have an excellent guest who will quell some of your anxieties when it comes to implementing artificial intelligence into robots. Bruce Duncan comes onto the podcast to talk to us about Bina48, a humanoid social robot based on a real life person named Bina Rothblatt.

We find out the purpose of Bina48 and how it was created. We also dive into the ethics of AI and why Bruce is so optimistic about the prospect moving forward. We’ll also discover the idea of creating Mindfiles and how that could be utilized to bring loved ones back from the dead for a conversation in the current day. All this and much more on this episode of Jolty!

Burials and cremations are dead ends. Composting is a fitting, circular end to life. This is the mission of Katrina Spade, who built "Recompose" - the world's first sustainable, empathetic, spiritually-elevated facility where human life is gradually and honorably brought to its most natural conclusion. Join Faith and Adam as they discuss the future of "life after life" while struggling  - with limited success - to avoid the inevitable puns.

Long before we named this podcast Jolty, Lou Cooperhouse, founder and CEO of BlueNalu, started a peak jolty company. Imagine if you could use the natural cells of fish to create fish itself! Contemplate blue fin sushi that is identical to the tuna that is harvested in the ocean, and then brutally killed on fishing boats. That's what Lou is creating with BlueNalu - a world where we can derive all the health and sensorial benefits of eating fresh fish, without the mercury and microplastics found in the fish we eat today, in the most sustainable way imaginable. Join Adam and Faith as Lou explains the vision, the technology, and the economics of how he is jolting conventional wisdom and creating the future of fish.

This week on Jolty, Adam and Faith are joined by Dr. Alex Box, an identity designer and futurist, who has some interesting ideas about human beings turning into entities and moving past their physical bodies. This obviously ties into one of Faith’s favorite subjects, the metaverse.

How will the metaverse change how we look? What will the impact of climate change be on how we look in the physical world? This episode is particularly Jolty and we recommend listening to it at least twice to absorb everything Alex is talking about!

On this week’s Jolty, Adam and Faith are joined by the CEO of the Female Quotient, Shelley Zalis. Shelley works with Fortune 500 companies and impact organizations to advance equality in the workplace.

How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected gender equality in the workplace? Is there still a gender pay gap in 2022? Why can’t the gender pay be fixed faster? What’s it like to co-parent? These questions, and much more will be answered in today's conversation!

Has our society lost the art of reading? Has social media fried our attention span?  There is no better person on the planet to take on this subject than Jim Mustich, the legendary book guru who dedicated 14 years to helping us find the books that will change our lives. Don’t miss this far-ranging conversation which covers the therapeutic benefits of reading; the TikTok phenomenon “#BookTok”; the similarities between the metaverse and the novel; and how Jim created a work-out regime for his attention span by reading the entirety of Proust’s  “Remembrance of Things Past.” (Decide for yourself whether to try this at home!) 

Some recommendations for our Jolty listeners are included, including Jim’s favorite book for triumphing over his to-do list.

This week on Jolty, Adam and Faith are taking a break from all of the guests and just doing a show on predictions they made in their book, The Dictionary of the Future. How has office work life shifted? Is ‘work from home’ here to stay? What about the Metaverse? Someday we might even replace our real world pets with virtual ones! Also, what about extending our lifespans via organ printing and brain regeneration? Adam and Faith have a lot to talk about on this week’s episode of Jolty!

This week Adam and Faith are talking with Mike Rutz, who is the Co-Founder and CEO of MakeMyMove, a company looking to help attract remote workers to rural and small towns across the country. The fact of the matter is, the COVID pandemic required 60 million workers to begin working from home, and many of them still haven’t returned to the office. This has opened up a great opportunity for the more than 20,000 communities across the country to recruit these remote workers to their small towns.

This is where Mike’s company comes in. He’s working with community and political leaders to create welcome packages to attract families with remote positions to small towns across America. Where would you move if you could work from anywhere? Enjoy this week’s conversation.

In this week’s Jolty podcast episode, Adam and Faith are joined by the “Michael Bay of business” Cindy Gallop who is here to “blow s*** up” when it comes to the patriarchy. Her business gives women and men alike more agency with their sexuality, driving inclusivity and gender-equal relationships.

Cindy is a brand and business innovator, consultant, coach, and keynote speaker who has a fiery attitude and brings radical, innovative, and groundbreaking transformation to businesses and leaders. How is her business affected by big tech and the ad bros? How does she get people to submit content? How has the recent Dobbs decision impacted what she is trying to do? Find out the answers to these questions, and much more, on this week's episode!

Adam and Faith are joined by the “godmother” of the metaverse, Cathy Hackl, who is the industry’s leading metaverse and web 3 authority. The topic of conversation today? The metaverse of course!

How close is the metaverse to widespread adoption? What technological improvements are in the pipeline to improve the overall experience? How are brands using the metaverse to make themselves more fun and accessible? What about the pros and cons of bringing accurate historical figures into the metaverse with AI? All of these questions and more will be answered in this week’s episode of Jolty.

Matt Murphy is a general partner at Montage Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm, but he’s here today to talk to Adam and Faith about the current outlook of the stock market, the state of cryptocurrencies, and other smart investments like real estate, art pieces, and even wine!

The thing about venture capitalists, is that they are actually futurists as well. In order to keep one step ahead on trends in investing, they have to be looking towards the future. Matt was also early on the crypto train, first investing in bitcoin back in 2010, but crypto isn’t the only out of the box asset he invests in personally. Find out what investments you should be keeping your eye on and much more in this week’s episode of Jolty!

Amber Baldet is the Co-Founder and CEO of Clovyr. Adam and Faith have her on the Jolty podcast today to discuss the current state of cyber data security. Big tech has absolutely taken over the world wide web, they access and control all of our private data, and until recently there were really no other widely available or accessible options.

This is where Clovyr comes in, which has the mission of empowering people to be able to make their own decisions regarding their data, by decentralizing many of the common aspects of the internet including multimedia, chat systems, private social media accounts, etc. How does one go ‘off grid’ in the internet era? Find out in today’s episode of Jolty!

In this episode of Jolty, Adam and Faith are joined by design and innovation expert, Marjorie Hernandez. Marjorie is an architect and designer by training who has a vision to dematerialize goods through the metaverse, a digital universe where items are created, and authenticated by the block chain.

Imagine owning 10,000 shoes in the metaverse, but only one pair in the physical world. How would that impact the environment for the better? What are the risks of copying digital assets? Do items you buy in the metaverse translate into physical life in any way? Find out the answers to all of this in this episode of Jolty.

Adam and Faith are joined today by entrepreneur Kyle Rand, CEO of Rendever. His idea to use virtual reality to expand the boundaries and lives of those who are no longer capable of doing so themselves, is particularly relevant to futurists.

How does Rendever work? Who is the target demographic for a service like this? Is it only for old homes or can this be applied to other parts of society? Get all of these questions, and more, answered in this episode of Jolty.

Adam and Faith speak to Alex Lambert about the status of the metaverse, how it works and the potential upsides and downsides of the digital universe. Alex has been working in the virtual reality space for the past 9 years, working with many top brands to produce nearly 75 live VR and AR projects.

How realistic is the idea of the metaverse today? Is it ready for prime time, or just another buzzword? What are the inherent risks in the metaverse when it comes to bullying or assault? Could the metaverse be used as a way to extend the lives of those who are no longer physically able and/or knocking on death’s door? Let’s hear what Alex Lambert has to say about these controversial, if not interesting ideas.

In this episode of Jolty, Adam and Faith are joined by Cyrus Beschloss, the son of the great historian Michael Beschloss. Cyrus is the founder of The Generation Lab, which is researching the key social, political, economic, and health trends shaping America’s youth today.

What exactly do kids in college today think about the most divisive and political issues of our time? How are they impacting the workforce? What’s the best way to phrase a poll question? Learn about all of this and more in today’s episode.

Adam and Faith welcome Matt Klein, cultural theorist and strategist, to discuss cyberpsychology, trends, and forecasting the future of cultural change.

With our world becoming more hyperpolarized with varying beliefs, Adam and Faith investigate conspiracy theories with Tim Melley to find out what attracts people to conspiracy and the tools to overcoming the theories .

On this episode our intellectual wanderers Faith Popcorn and Adam Hanft journey into the world of Cannabis with Julian Cohen, Chief Innovation Officer at Canopy Growth. How can our lives be enhanced by cannabinoids in the future? Can cannabis be the mood management jolt needed to uplift spirits? Let’s JOLT!

Adam, Faith and Maggy return after a brief hiatus to connect with author John Allen, and discuss what makes a home, the importance of a place to call home, and how the pandemic has affected our sense of home and community. 

Maggy, Adam, and Faith delve into the Super-worlds of Krista Kim and Hrish Lotlikar, as they discuss the Mars House, NFTs, ancient philosophy and the future of art and human interaction

In this episode, Maggy, Adam, and Faith connect with Helen Farr-Leander, founder and director of accessories brand Watson & Wolf.  What was once a dream to specialize in leather turned into a mission of sustainability, environmental responsibility, and personal accountability in her newest venture.  Let's Jolt!!!

Adam, Faith and Maggy welcome back Harold Koplewicz, to discuss post-pandemic parenting, navigating our 'new normal', and his new book "The Scaffold Effect"

Adam, Faith, and Maggy connect with Eric Golnick and Eric Frieman to discuss "FORGE"- an outpatient approach to substance abuse intervention and mental health support.

Maggy, Adam, and Faith welcome Boaz Gaon, CEO of Wisdo.com to discuss the healing power of community and using social media for social health, and not just likes.  We dive into the inspiration behind Wisdo.com, and how the concept of helping others is allowing thousands to truly help and heal themselves.